It was delightful to learn that since we joined "Europe" in 1973, Ireland has largely relied on British civil servants to transpose EU directives into common law.

In the mind's eye it creates a vision of someone on the Dublin side arriving back into the office on Tuesday after a big weekend, checking his Inbox and finding the usual document headlined For The Attention Of Paddy.

It reminds us of a similar vision suggested in this column a few weeks ago, whereby Paddy has been showing up for years with John Bull, throwing the keys across the table to him, and saying, "you're driving tonight, mate" - such a happy scene indeed, which has now been transformed by the Brexit vote into the deeply disturbing scenario of Paddy showing up to find that John Bull is passed out drunk, his face in the soup.

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